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The Secret Barrister

Stories of the Law and How It's Broken

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The Secret Barrister

By: The Secret Barrister
Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
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About this listen

An anonymous barrister's darkly comic and moving first-hand account of life in the legal system, and how it's failing us all.

The Sunday Times number one bestseller.

Winner of the Books are My Bag Non-Fiction Award.

Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year.

Shortlisted for Specsavers Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

You may not wish to think about it, but one day you or someone you love will almost certainly appear in a criminal courtroom. You might be a juror, a victim, a witness or – perhaps through no fault of your own – a defendant. Whatever your role, you’d expect a fair trial.

I’m a barrister. I work in the criminal justice system, and every day I see how fairness is not guaranteed. Too often the system fails those it is meant to protect. The innocent are wronged and the guilty allowed to walk free.

In The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken I want to share some stories from my daily life to show you how the system is broken, who broke it and why we should start caring before it’s too late.

A Sunday Times top ten bestseller for twenty-four weeks.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 The Secret Barrister (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio Law Professionals & Academics Crime Funny Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring

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Critic reviews

'Eye-opening, damning and hilarious' – Tim Shipman, author of All Out War and Fall Out

‘Eye-opening, funny and horrifying’ – Observer

‘Everyone who has any interest in public life should read it’ – Daily Mail
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This very frank account from a professional within our legal advocacy community should give us all cause for contemplation and concern. A well thought out and presented account on where our criminal justice system is.

A system in jeopardy

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an un cut version of the Criminal law system.
its presented well with a combination of facts, figures and examples.
uts quite scary really to think about how you might be treated and what it would look like to a court if you were ever the victim or the offender. neither side of the coin looks good.
another thing the country needs to think about. The courts, schools and hospitals all need a shake up.
I found the book very interesting.

factual and frightening

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Guaranteed to change your opinion on UK criminal legal system.

What is criminal is legal aid and some of the policy changes the government has been slipping in relatively unnoticed.

Fantastic and shocking! Difficult to put down.

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Everyone should be made aware of this book and the covert decline in our legal system that manages the society in which we all live.

A wake up call to us all.

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Top draw account of the wrecking of the legal system by politicians of all stripes

Excellent

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A good book with loss of insight into the court system in the UK, it's quite disappointing that citizens can't read more about the law and how the system works.

good book with a lot of inside

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Far from a diatribe, this is actually quite constrained when balanced against the corrupt morality the SB is revealing.

There are naturally a few moments of tongue lashing, and though sometimes that might lead the reader to believe a writer is unobjective, in this case, it’s just what we need to wake us all up!

Will it make a difference? Well it’s a start, and not a lone voice as the SB has recorded for us, so there’s some, though faint, hope.

Should be on the school curriculum

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People don't realise just how broken our country is
Well written and easy to follow

Great insight

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absolutely great book interesting, informative and well read. Frankly this should be read by every citizen of England and Wales!

briliant if depressing book

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Informative and interesting. I know a lot more now than I did as well and it concerns me that our legal system is even more underfunded than the nhs!

Great listen

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